Students

[Grayma]

It's the same as the tread I created and people have added to about websites to help people learn ASL. They still create new threads in general chat.

People are also just unobservant. In the dark ages as a teenager I worked as a hostess at a restuarant. I stood with the reservation book beneath a five foot long sign that said RESTROOM and pointed the direction to the bathroom, and every day 20 people stood there and asked me where the bathroom was.

I got so tired of them.

Then I grew up and became one of those people.

 

[Smithtr]

I made a special thread for all the ASL students who want to practice, and quite a few do submit their information to that sticky thread.

Unfortunately, some seem to feel that are too special to just join the appropriate place and must have their own.

Yes Important to their own help special join better reason! that is why point, Botties is exactly, ASL Student help community! help community! we are help to people, but proper to reason thread, Many latest hearing people learn to how teach to children and cultures I effort too work best!!

 

[breelligerent]

At the risk of taking a few bullets here, I'd like to put something out there. I hope you know that I am only trying to defend those, like myself, who have a genuine desire to learn and are not simply here for an easy out on an assignment. I read quite a bit here and have chosen not to post much because I have seen the resentment towards students and although for the time being I am learning on my own, I still consider myself a student. I am only learning about much of this and it may be familiar to you, but to others it's like meeting the boyfriend's parents for the first time. Totally different family, you're not sure what is appropriate and what is not, and although you may be excited the uncertainties can be very intimidating.....!

I'm the same way, MrsSaraR! I'm a student who has been lurking for a long time, didn't make an account until a few months ago, and don't post a whole lot. I'd rather just watch and learn than make myself a bother. I think those that want to learn do by watching before jumping in.

It sucks that the lazy ones make all students look bad, but I can't blame the regulars on AD for getting sick of it.

 

[saywhatkid]

The challenge is when these students post a thread, and then receive a negative response to their innocent and genuine questions. I think it can give the wrong impression, and we all know that a first impression is a lasting impression.

This poster came to gain more insight, and instead they are leaving with a bad taste in their mouth. I think this could be prevented by creating a sub forum, where posters can determine if they want to click on the link and participate. It might help to
Alleviate some of the negativity that they receive as well.

We shouldn't fault people for trying to learn more. Sure, there are situations where posters are lazy and don't do their homework. There are many though, who have limited information and are coming to learn more. We should help educate them- not run them off.

I for one, would actually not mind ASL students if they immersed themselves in AD and became daily posters (any forum could always use more opinions).
But to date, I don't think any of the active daily, weekly, or possibly even monthly members are ASL students. Come think of it, none of them have remained very long enough to become frequent.

Either way it's like said, they are post and running after getting their help without regard to stay with the community, or they don't like this site enough to stay on it.

Personally, I'd still say facebook/twitter/etc are the real killers of that.

That is why they get a cool reception. If you pay attention, you will see them appear in clusters around the same time of year, end of semester. Why defend the newbies so vehemently? Some of us get tired of doing homework, while some student feels they have completed their assignment by posting here and head for the mall.

 

[Devyn231]

Wirelessly posted

Im kinda on the same page as breelligerent. Ive refrained from asking anything & spend most of my time reading & just involving myself into chats that interest me. Im a first year college student/hearing & nervous as hell! LOL but i did tale the time to read a lot before posting much

 

[lovezebras]

I feel like a subforum heading in bold under Hearing or something or Student than subforum ASL, Assignments, Learning etc or something of the sort would be better than the sticky's ..I no longer welcome many people to AD because they are almost ALL students and only are here for someone to practice with...find someone in your community to practice with or an interpreter ...it's getting to be kind of annoying in my opinion.

 

[Devyn231]

I feel like a subforum heading in bold under Hearing or something or Student than subforum ASL, Assignments, Learning etc or something of the sort would be better than the sticky's ..I no longer welcome many people to AD because they are almost ALL students and only are here for someone to practice with...find someone in your community to practice with or an interpreter ...it's getting to be kind of annoying in my opinion.

I can totally see why you mentioned it. And while I agree with you on most of it, were 'all' not here to practice. My reasoning for joining was to start immersing myself into the deaf community. I live in a small town, and have had very little experience with deaf culture. Through school & co workers, I am gaining more knowledge.

But I did join this forum through my own searching & so far I've yet to ask for help or practice. I took the time to read for several days, of the many posts here & quickly figured out some of the online etiquette here. Rather than asking questions, I try to simply involve myself with posts I find interesting

As a first year student & taking in what I've seen so far, it would be my last intention to cause problems here. I already feel out of place, nervous and timid. But I can understand what you mean. Most student posts are what you described. But I do hope were 'all' not like that

 

[dereksbicycles]

Subforum would be a great idea. There are a lot of deaf cats and ferrets that don't have much computer skills. I'm sure they'll be happy to help ASL students and answer all questions in one place before getting bored fast and going back to their catnips. So basically, if questions were all over places, deaf cats will be overwhelmed and just go back to their cat tree.

 

[Smithtr]

Subforum would be a great idea. There are a lot of deaf cats and ferrets that don't have much computer skills. I'm sure they'll be happy to help ASL students and answer all questions in one place before getting bored fast and going back to their catnips. So basically, if questions were all over places, deaf cats will be overwhelmed and just go back to their cat tree.

Good idea! lots of ASL help students! better we are help skills effort ASL I think so better ASL
we are overwhelming to ASL! we are help alots of of help ASL students, imho!

 

[StevieMont927]

I for one, would actually not mind ASL students if they immersed themselves in AD and became daily posters (any forum could always use more opinions).
But to date, I don't think any of the active daily, weekly, or possibly even monthly members are ASL students. Come think of it, none of them have remained very long enough to become frequent.

Either way it's like said, they are post and running after getting their help without regard to stay with the community, or they don't like this site enough to stay on it.

Personally, I'd still say facebook/twitter/etc are the real killers of that.

<waves> I know I'm not active, but I am a student!

One of the reasons I don't post that much is because I don't feel like I can. It's not to say that people here aren't nice at all, but I'm not Deaf, therefore threads based on Deaf Experiences aren't something I feel I can contribute to. I do post sometimes, but I get a lot of information just being a lurker >.>...

And I've just recently transferred schools and whatnot, so there's a lack-of-time component there too, but now that's settled down I'm on here a lot more.

To add to the discussion: I think that the sub-forum's a great idea (even I'm getting tired of the join-post-get answers-leave bit), but for me the real question is whether or not students are going to bother to take the time to find a sub-forum. They don't bother to read through anything before they post, so really searching the site for a sub-forum seems like it isn't something they'd do. However, if it IS created, it'll be easy to just direct them to it, so they don't have to spend the long, tedious hours locating and using the search bar(/sarcasm).

 

[shimo]

I think creating a subforum for hearing students studying ASL would be a good idea. I guess it doesn't have to be exclusively for hearing students, but I think a subforum/subsection would eventually become very hearing-people centric.

I know one reply here said you wouldn't expect to see a "let's learn french!" subforum on a french-speaking forum, but with the growing interest in ASL on the internet, it would be wise of the forum to create a separate play pen for people who just want to talk about learning a new language. It makes sense to cater to the needs of the forum community, even if those needs are from newer members.

In the spirit of being an inclusive community and not an exclusive community, I think a subforum or subsection in a subforum, would be the best solution.

I mean, it's that, or let members continue to leave snarky comments on poorly placed posts, which casts a bad light on the forum community to less enlightened newbies; OR outright ban all the curious but thoughtless newbie posts that contribute nothing to the forum because the current population won't behave.
...in a sense, the reason for creating a separate ASL students forum would be similar to why the Parents with deaf children with CI sub-section was created.


Also, this way those who want to help other ASL learners (even if there is no way to tell who is qualified to help and who is not) will have a section to go to, or students can try to help each other. ASL Students could also share their research or online resources they have found helpful to learn ASL as a second language.

There should be recognition that the way one acquires a second language is not identical to the way one acquires a first language. It isn't that all students are being ignorant or shy or lazy -- it's that learning a different language is a new thing for a lot of students so they just don't know how to go about doing so: They're used to being fluent in the language or languages they know, and grammar, vocab, and set phrases are practically instinct. It takes a lot of effort to train oneself to recognize how to break apart a language so that it can be studied.


Also, I haven't been here long, but I definitely did not ask for answers for my homework and then leave.
...since I do not have an ASL class to give me homework. But like another poster in this thread said, I want to observe what the community is like before I start posting on the forums too much: I want to get to know the community before I assert myself in it.